Remember the old movie musicals? Mickey and Judy and their pals, in the midst of a little friendly tap routine, would spontaneously decide: We’ll put on our own show. . . and we’ll invite all our friends. . . and we’ll do it in the barn. And suddenly, they were on their way to a Busby Berkeley-designed song-and-dance spectacular.
It was many years later, but a scenario can be written about Tim Murphy, Dale Goode and Dave Ready, sitting around over a glass of California wine. And they spontaneously decided: We’ll make our own wine. . . and invite all our friends. . . and we’ll build the winery where the barn is.
That was 1985, and as the Murphy-Goode Winery, still with a sense of humor in its approach, nears its silver anniversary in Sonoma County with a new management structure that puts the veteran Jess Jackson in command, a full line of outstanding wines and a great p.r. move in a public search that offers a dazzling internship, with the winner to be announced in the next few days. Murphy-Goode is looking for someone to move to Sonoma County for six months – at $10,000 per month – and perk up wine sales or good gossip about the winery on social networks.
The winery hosted a recent tasting in St. Louis, with some superior nibbles from the kitchen of Sasha’s on Shaw and a handful of first-rate wines, most of them in the $20-$30 range, a few closer to $50.
Dave Ready Jr., who grew up in Dad’s winery and is now the winemaker, was on hand to chat about his wines. . . .
They’re fond of hearty reds at Murphy-Goode, which has a number of vineyards in Sonoma County’s Alexander Valley, and a pair of outstanding 2004 wines in the All-In Claret and the Terra a Lago Cabernet Sauvignon. The former, a Bordeaux blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (68 percent), Merlot (19.2) and Petit Verdot (12.8), draws its name from the French tradition of using everything in a given vineyard to blend a wine, and from the Las Vegas poker tradition of pushing all one’s chips into the middle of the table. It’s aged in new French and American oak for 18 months, resulting in a big, rich wine with overtones of mint in the aroma and blackberries on the palate. It’s a wonderful companion to rare roast beef or a thick sirloin. Since the BATF forbids a specific grape name on a label unless the grape makes up three-fourths of the blend, the Murphy-Goode group decided on the proprietary word, Claret, a term the English have used for centuries to describe Bordeaux wines.
Similar, but more concentrated and more expensive, is the Terra a Lago, 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon from Alexander Valley grapes. It’s ready for drinking today, but it will improve for 4-6 years in the bottle, as the tannins soften and the ancillary flavors expand. Ready described the wine as showing "aromas of sweet oak and vanilla that lead to rich flavors of blackberry, bay and thyme." Without the softening aspect of Merlot, this wine still shows hard edges and considerable oak, but it’s elegant as a companion to beef.
Ready also is very proud of his Zinfandels, led by his ‘06 Liar’s Dice (apparently a favorite winery game, along with poker), with a four-percent hit of Carignan ("it adds some structure to the wine," says Ready) to go along with Dry Creek and Alexander Valley Fruit, the former adding hints of black raspberry and black currants, the latter, some from 80-year-old vines, brings blackberry jam. The wine is nearly black in color, dark and flavorful in the mouth, long in the finish.
White wine fans will appreciate the lovely, silken mouth feel of Murphy-Goode’s 2008 Sauvignon Blanc, called "The Fume," a delightfully crisp, citrus-y wine that will be a fine accompaniment to oysters on the half-shell, especially those from Bodega Bay and other areas where the Pacific Ocean is Sonoma’s western border. Mostly fermented in stainless steel, which keeps the fruit forward and the lightness soaring, with a little in barrel for depth, it’s a wonderful companion to seafood and a fine aperitif for sipping at poolside.
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Great bottle, had not thought of it for a while. Thanks for the reminder